Saturday, January 24, 2015

Australia bans waste dumping on Great Barrier Reef

Australia has ordered a ban on dumping
dredge waste on most of the Great Barrier Reef, the environment minister
said on Saturday (Jan 24), as part of a push to stop the UN declaring
the site in danger.Environment Minister Greg Hunt said he had
ordered the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to develop
regulations to stop waste from capital dredging being dumped in the park
"once and for all". "We are ending a century-old practice of dumping in
the marine park," he said, referring to waste created by enlarging
shipping channels, berths and marinas.

Conservationists say
dumping waste in reef waters damages it by smothering corals and sea
grasses and exposing them to poisons and high levels of nutrients.The
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) has threatened to put the reef, which is a World Heritage area,
on its danger list. The body has given Australia until Feb 1 to act and
Hunt said he would travel to Europe next week to consult on long-term
plans for the natural wonder.

Hunt said the government had put
together "a strong defence of the management of the Great Barrier Reef
... concluding that it should not be listed as in danger".The
reef also faces threats from climate change, nutrients washing into the
sea and the destructive crown-of-thorns starfish, and the government was
working on each of them, he added in a statement. But he said water
quality was improving, coral-eating starfish were being culled and
stricter management regimes have been put in place for shipping and
developments, including ports.

"Australians are proud of the reef
and it remains one of the great natural wonders of the world," he said.
"We are determined to protect and manage the Great Barrier Reef not just
for the coming decades, but for coming centuries."

The park where
the ban will apply almost totally overlaps with an expanse designated
as a World Heritage Area, but it does not include most islands and
ports, as well as lakes and other waterways in the heritage area.

Environmental
groups have urged the minister to go a step further and prohibit the
dumping of dredge soil throughout the World Heritage Area, not just
within the marine park.The ban will now be subject to public consultation, with final approval expected by mid-March.

EL KAOS UT

The UN has imposed a 2013 deadline for the submission of scientific claims to the Arctic seabed. It is the precursor to a resource boom which would see Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Greenland all attempt to exploit the region's resources.